Bonk: Brink of Extinction [Cancelled – XBLA, PSN, WiiWare]

Bonk: Brink of Extinction [Cancelled – XBLA, PSN, WiiWare]

Bonk: Brink of Extinction is an adventure platformer developed by Pi Studios that was planned to be released in 2010 for XBLA / PSN / WiiWare. It was set to be priced at 1000 points on the Nintendo Wii Shop Channel’s WiiWare platform, 800 points on XBLA, and $10 on PSN. In September 2009, before the title was officially announced, a Neogaf user inadvertently stumbled upon an official fact-sheet for the game on Hudson’s website:

A doomsday comet, surrounded by smaller chunks of debris, is on a collision course with Earth. A strange magnetic field around the comet seems to be driving most of the planet’s weak-willed creatures crazy, and smaller bits of debris are smashing into the jungle near Bonk’s home. Bonk must undertake a perilous journey that will take him to the very center of the planet to save the world.

The Return Of The Most Widely Requested Classic Platformer

Story Mode with Co-Op play. Play alone or have a friend join you at any time!

An entire new adventure with Bonk as he swims, bites, climbs, jumps, runs, and head-butts his way through jungles, deserts and volcanic caverns

Search for help along the way: power ups, check points, and extra health are the staple for every adventuring caveman.

Transformations are back and weirder than ever! Now Bonk can transform himself into eight different forms by eating meat or encountering Primordial Jelly. No enemy is safe from the boy with the super noggin!

New Features

Online play for the first time in the series!

Classic 2D platforming in a 3D world.

Tons of collectibles will have you searching the entire prehistoric world.

In two 2009 interviews with Nintendo life, and Diehard GameFAN, Andrew Plempel (Hudson Entertainment Producer) & Jeremy Statz (Pi Studios Lead Designer), disclosed a few more details about the game:

NL: The original Bonk titles were famous for their mini-games. Can we expect to see more of these in this new release? Plempel: You know it! We’ve hidden entrances to mini-games in just about every level.

NL: Will Brink of Extinction feature the same gameplay system as in the original games or can we expect some new ideas in the mix? […] Bonk can switch between the different forms as needed, they’re no longer a 30-second one-off pickup item. Bonk has a limited amount of power and making use of his transformations reduces that, while certain items increase it.

DHGF: The game promises eight transformations for Bonk. What are some of these?

Andrew Plempel: Some of the transformation will allow Bonk to control fire and ice attacks. There is also a transformation that will allow bonk to shrink himself down to a smaller size so he can fit into tiny passageways.

DHGF: What other modes are available besides story mode?

Andrew Plempel: Well in the initial download we are only including the story mode and online co-op. We do have some PDLC planned that will bring competitive multiplayer modes to the table.

In 2010, two more interviews were conducted by Siliconera, and Otakuxgamer with Peter Dassenko (Hudson Entertainment Producer) that discussed its planned co-op mode and revealed that Bonk was initially conceived as a retail release:

SN: How did development of Bonk: Brink of Extinction start?

Peter Dassenko, Producer: Internally it had been documented as a Wii Game, a DS Game and finally a Digital Download game.

SN: Since cooperative play is a key feature, did you design levels with areas that you can only reach with two players?

Yes. Some levels are designed so that accessing certain areas is easier with a friend. They’re also designed in a way that requires the use of power-ups that you might not have on the first play through.

Powers such as the Ice Hat however don’t just come in handy for combat situations; they’ll also be for some light puzzle-solving. For example, freezing enemies into solid blocks will allow Bonk to use them as stepping-stones to reach ledges he couldn’t reach before. So in essence you have the classic Metroid formula at work whereby you will be able to collect these power-ups and access areas you couldn’t get to earlier.

Bonk: Brink of Extinction featured three worlds, each of which included ten stages. Aside from the main story, three DLC packs were also planned: Horde Mode, Dactyl Story (where Bonk had to retrieve his dinner from a pterodactyl that stole it) and Monkeyshines (where Bonk had to fight the monkeys that invaded his village).

Bonk was finished, but not released,because, after buying Hudson in January 2011, Konami decided to shelve some projects in order to save money. Hudson Entertainment, the USA branch of the Japanese company, closed down in Febraury 2011. In March of the same year, Famitsu Weekly announced that Bonk was cancelled. Almost at the the same time, Pi Studios ceased operations. Moreover, as a game which depicted a natural disaster, it ran the risk of causing offence, in the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

Would you like to add more info, screens or videos to this page?
Add a comment below!

A video game enthusiast since 1989, he was in the past a contributor for multiplayer.it and alternative-reality.com, two italian video games websites. Currently he writes about popular culture on playersmagazine.it

I hope one day that, at the very least, the WiiWare version of this game conveniently leaks. It doesn’t look ‘amazing,’ but it does look like a decent enough, enjoyable game. I like Bonk and was looking forward to this, so I was extremely disappointed when it was cancelled.

If this game really was finished or even close to it then I guess some contractual obligations would come into effect if the game was released causing cancellation to be a cheaper alternative to the potential loss possible if released. Still, at this point I’m shocked there hasn’t been a leaked version. I suppose the people who worked on it that would like to see it released don’t have access to the game and no one currently at Konami wants to risk their job by leaking it (you’d assume Konami still maintains a copy but who knows). Kinda sad if this game is truly lost.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Notice: It seems you have Javascript disabled in your Browser. In order to submit a comment to this post, please write this code along with your comment: 7b0d408f11d5acc059d0056db1740095

Find your unseen game:

Search

What do we do?

Unseen64 is an archive to preserve articles, screens and videos for cancelled, beta & unseen videogames. Every change and cut creates a different gaming experience: we would like to save some documents of this evolution for curiosity, historic and artistic preservation. We are a collective of gamers from all around the world, in our limited free time we do the best we can to remember these lost games. You can help too! All Unseen64 articles are published in good faith & fair use, if you find any errors or issues regarding some of them, just let us know.

Buy Games to Support U64:

Here are some games you can buy on Amazon: when we use affiliate links on Unseen64 we may receive a commission for the sale. For you is free, you don't pay anything more, but for us it helps a lot! Currently this is working for Amazon.com, Amazon.it and Amazon.co.uk :)

Unseen 64 Archive

If you want to help U64:

Unseen64 is an independent site. No money is generated from our work so we must pay each and every server bill ourselves. Thanks to your support we were able to rise enough donations to pay the server for this year! We are super happy :) Remaining donations are used to repay some of the time spent working on Unseen64 and set aside in a “preservation fund“, for emergency site expenses and other equipment that could help the archive: all expenses will be discussed with our patrons before to be used! For more details check: How does Unseen64 use Donations? If you want to donate some of your love, we accept one-off donations through PayPal / Credit Card and pledges on Patreon! You can just donate how much or little you want. Every cent is really appreciated and sent towards the U64 Archive. Thank you for even reading this :)